maillemaker
New member
Here is the definitive thread on making your own BP:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?103852-My-homemade-black-powder
Bear in mind that this thread is over 100 pages long. I recommend you read ALL of it. You will discover that there are at least 3 different mechanisms described for making BP. You will also discover that there are a lot of people who jumped into the conversation when it was already dozens of pages long, without reading any of the preceding pages, only to chime in with wrong information.
I have not yet done it myself, though I have done everything prior to the mixing and pressing. So, take my advise with a grain of salt.
I'll summarize some of the high points from the above link, but I recommend you read the whole thing yourself.
First of all, black powder charcoal is not like cooking charcoal. Softer woods make better BP than hard woods. Regular old spruce from the hardware store is said to work fine. Yes, Willow is said to make great BP, but so it is said that Balsa will. Hard woods like Oak are said to make poor black powder.
Second, all you need to make BP is charcoal, potassium nitrate, and sulfur. I bought my KNO3 and Sulfur from Duda Energy: https://www.dudadiesel.com/ . You do not need to add urine, or any other things, to it.
Some people add Dextrin to the mix as a binder, but this is only necessary if you are making "screened" BP. More on this next.
There is only one "real" way to make black powder, and this is using pressure to intimately bind all of the ingredients together. This is called "corning", and it is the way commercial black powder is made. The ingredients are finely pulverized, then mixed together when damp and pressed under very high pressure into cakes, or "pucks", and allowed to dry. Then these pucks are broken up and sorted by use of screens into different granule sizes. Too-large grains can be re-ground, too-small grains can be put back in as raw material again, so there is no waste.
Some people make black powder by "screening". This is where you mix the ingredients together, including a Dextrin binder, and then dampen them, and then push the damp mix through a screen. This results in very low-density, "fluffy", or "light" powder. It burns fine, but you will require a lot more of the powder by volume then with commercial, pressed, powder. This is because it is much less dense than pressed powder. In something like a muzzle loader, this may not matter. In something like a revolver or a cartridge it might matter because there is a limit to the volume available for the charge.
To make corned powder most people use a Harbor Freight hydraulic press. People have made due with 6-ton presses, a 12 or 20 might be better. I don't know that I have seen any definitive tests. I bought a 12-ton press for my own BP making but have not yet assembled the press.
Some basic safety rules here:
Pulverize your ingredients into powder separately, obviously. While separate, they are relatively inert. Only when combined do they become dangerous. You will combine them in a ball mill to become finely mixed as "green powder". Many people use a Harbor Freight rock tumbler for this. Make sure you only use non-sparking grinding media. Some people use lead balls. This can sometimes result in caking in the corners of the tumbling drums where the balls can't reach. I took segments of 1/2" brass tubing and filled them with lead to make little cylinders for my media.
Some people use coffee grinders to grind the puck chunks into grains. Make sure you use a ceramic one if you do this. I recommend discarding the glass catch container and simply grind into an open bucket of some kind. You don't want a glass hand grenade as part of this process.
I recommend only processing small amounts of powder at a time. Like a half a pound or less.
I'd recommend doing all your processing outdoors. Let your ball mill run outdoors. Do your grinding outdoors. Do your screening outdoors. Do your container filling outdoors. You don't want to end up with residual fine black powder dust accumulating in your workshop or garage or whatever. Your insurance company may give you trouble if you blow up / burn down your house because you were making black powder in it. I don't know.
If you use a blender to pulverize your ingredients, make sure you thoroughly wash all the parts before you switch to pulverize a different ingredient. Never use a blender to try and pulverize mixed ingredients! That is the job for the ball mill with its non-sparking media while it is running 50 yards away from your house out in the back yard.
I believe that making your own BP in small batches is something that can probably be safely done, at least well within the acceptable risks of any hobby with some measure of danger, so long as certain precautions are taken.
Read the above link from end to end. Ignore the junk posts sprinkled within it.
Steve
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?103852-My-homemade-black-powder
Bear in mind that this thread is over 100 pages long. I recommend you read ALL of it. You will discover that there are at least 3 different mechanisms described for making BP. You will also discover that there are a lot of people who jumped into the conversation when it was already dozens of pages long, without reading any of the preceding pages, only to chime in with wrong information.
I have not yet done it myself, though I have done everything prior to the mixing and pressing. So, take my advise with a grain of salt.
I'll summarize some of the high points from the above link, but I recommend you read the whole thing yourself.
First of all, black powder charcoal is not like cooking charcoal. Softer woods make better BP than hard woods. Regular old spruce from the hardware store is said to work fine. Yes, Willow is said to make great BP, but so it is said that Balsa will. Hard woods like Oak are said to make poor black powder.
Second, all you need to make BP is charcoal, potassium nitrate, and sulfur. I bought my KNO3 and Sulfur from Duda Energy: https://www.dudadiesel.com/ . You do not need to add urine, or any other things, to it.
Some people add Dextrin to the mix as a binder, but this is only necessary if you are making "screened" BP. More on this next.
There is only one "real" way to make black powder, and this is using pressure to intimately bind all of the ingredients together. This is called "corning", and it is the way commercial black powder is made. The ingredients are finely pulverized, then mixed together when damp and pressed under very high pressure into cakes, or "pucks", and allowed to dry. Then these pucks are broken up and sorted by use of screens into different granule sizes. Too-large grains can be re-ground, too-small grains can be put back in as raw material again, so there is no waste.
Some people make black powder by "screening". This is where you mix the ingredients together, including a Dextrin binder, and then dampen them, and then push the damp mix through a screen. This results in very low-density, "fluffy", or "light" powder. It burns fine, but you will require a lot more of the powder by volume then with commercial, pressed, powder. This is because it is much less dense than pressed powder. In something like a muzzle loader, this may not matter. In something like a revolver or a cartridge it might matter because there is a limit to the volume available for the charge.
To make corned powder most people use a Harbor Freight hydraulic press. People have made due with 6-ton presses, a 12 or 20 might be better. I don't know that I have seen any definitive tests. I bought a 12-ton press for my own BP making but have not yet assembled the press.
Some basic safety rules here:
Pulverize your ingredients into powder separately, obviously. While separate, they are relatively inert. Only when combined do they become dangerous. You will combine them in a ball mill to become finely mixed as "green powder". Many people use a Harbor Freight rock tumbler for this. Make sure you only use non-sparking grinding media. Some people use lead balls. This can sometimes result in caking in the corners of the tumbling drums where the balls can't reach. I took segments of 1/2" brass tubing and filled them with lead to make little cylinders for my media.
Some people use coffee grinders to grind the puck chunks into grains. Make sure you use a ceramic one if you do this. I recommend discarding the glass catch container and simply grind into an open bucket of some kind. You don't want a glass hand grenade as part of this process.
I recommend only processing small amounts of powder at a time. Like a half a pound or less.
I'd recommend doing all your processing outdoors. Let your ball mill run outdoors. Do your grinding outdoors. Do your screening outdoors. Do your container filling outdoors. You don't want to end up with residual fine black powder dust accumulating in your workshop or garage or whatever. Your insurance company may give you trouble if you blow up / burn down your house because you were making black powder in it. I don't know.
If you use a blender to pulverize your ingredients, make sure you thoroughly wash all the parts before you switch to pulverize a different ingredient. Never use a blender to try and pulverize mixed ingredients! That is the job for the ball mill with its non-sparking media while it is running 50 yards away from your house out in the back yard.
I believe that making your own BP in small batches is something that can probably be safely done, at least well within the acceptable risks of any hobby with some measure of danger, so long as certain precautions are taken.
Read the above link from end to end. Ignore the junk posts sprinkled within it.
Steve